A Perfect Stranger
by TheEndOfTheDay
Summary: After the ghost debacle Dipper and Pacifica take some time to get to know one another and find that maybe they're not as different as they thought.
1. Chapter 1

**This was just an idea I had after seeing the tenth episode (BTW I'm totally shipping these two.)**

**Any feedback is appreciated and if I get people wanting more I have a few ideas. ;)**

_After the whole ghost-trying-to-kill-everyone thing was over I realized how little I really knew Pacifica. So, we sat on one of her parents' fancy couches and talked. She told me about her overbearing parents and I told her about my incredibly boring ones, she told me about her "friends" and I told her about my nonexistent ones. We talked for hours. She was hilariously sarcastic and actually really deep. I was sorry to have to leave at the end of the night._

"I should probably go," Dipper muttered, "Stan might be upset if I get back to the Shack too late." The pair stood and wandered slowly and silently to the huge front doors.

"Are you gonna get a lot of heat from your parents after all the guests have left?" he questioned.

"Probably, but I'm not sorry I did it," She smirked, "not just because I saved their butts either. Usually these parties are totally boring, but this year it was... fun." She smiled as she watched Lazy Susan and Tambry dance arm in arm. "I want to do this every year." Dipper smiled at the thought.

When Dipper was through the large, wooden doors, instead of continuing home, as he should have, he sat on the front steps to the mansion and looked out across the incredible garden. To his utter delight, Pacifica sat beside him.

They sat in silence until a gust of Oregon air swept across them and they shivered. "Oh, hey! Take my coat!" Dipper offered as he began removing it.

"What are you doing? I'm fine." She returned

"It's your suit anyway." He shrugged slyly as he draped it over her shoulders.

She stiffly mumbled something resembling 'Thanks' and they sat in silence again.

"I wonder what this place will be like in the future." Dipper wondered out loud.

"It will be a lot more plain, I know that." she returned.

"What do mean by that?" he asked.

"When I inherit the Northwest mansion I'll cut back on all these frivolous fancies-"

"Wait, I thought you loved being fancy."

"True, but when I'm an adult I'll put away my childish things unlike my parents did. I'll reduce the staff, I'll buy market food, not all this high-end stuff, and as much as I'll miss them, I'll even donate my peacocks to a zoo." she smiled, watching, as one strutted across the path, "Then, I'll give all the extra money to charity or something." Pacifica finished with a grin, and looked at Dipper expectantly.

"I have to say, I was not expecting that." Dipper replied, returning the grin.

_And we talked for hours more._


	2. Chapter 2

**I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed my story. So, thanks!**

_I didn't see Pacifica for weeks after that night. I kinda just assumed she was grounded so, I continued with life as usual. Though I had to admit, I looked forward to seeing her again._

"Dipper! Dipper, Dipper, Dipper!"

Dipper looked up from the book in his lap and caught sight of his sister over the counter as she ran through the door, covered in stickers, with a pig at her heels, also covered in stickers, and a Thing in her hands.

"Look what we found! and it has a face." Mabel grinned standing on one side of the counter she dropped a squash onto it as Dipper began to investigate from the other side.

"Hmm, I've seen this before..." He muttered, pulling out the journal and flipping through it.

"Waddles found it in the woods while we were experimenting." She grinned again as she swaddled the pigs' head and began to pull out more stickers to put on her pig.

Dipper smiled and sighed at her "Here it is;" He said stopping at a page "'Squash with Human Face and Emotions. He's GOURD-geous.'" He quoted, cringing at the terrible pun. "'Butternut squashes that have somehow mutated into a human face with all kinds of emotional expressions, even those that I have no idea about. It's unknown if they possess any magical property. Further study shows that these squashes are constantly evolving as new emotions appeared. Which bumps up my fear of a possible future where plant people are taking over."

Dipper looked down at the warty face, smiling back up at him, and suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

"Let's keep it! I'm naming him Warty Gordy!" Mabel declared.

"Mabel, I think that's a bad idea, you should just put it back where you found it."

"His name is Warty Gordy" She said as she picked him up and rocked him like a baby, "and I can't disown him now that I've adopted him. He stays."

"Just check with Grunkle Stan first." He sighed, in resignation.

"I will!" She said cheerily as she marched upstairs to the attic carrying 'Gordy' with her.

"And tell Stan not to eat it!" He hollered toward the hall she had walked through.

Dipper returned to his book.

Maybe ten minutes later, the door opened signifying a visitor. He sighed again as he put a bookmark in the pages and set the book down.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack!" he said with forced enthusiasm as, to his surprise, Pacifica Northwest stepped in.

"Hi." She said, she began wandering about, looking at the cheap novelties on the shelves, as a confused Dipper observed, "My parents want me to get a job or whatever and they thought this place would be humiliating enough." Pacifica said sounding bored.

"You're going to work here?" Dipper asked dumbfounded, "As a worker? working? like the working class?"

"It's not like I'm happy about it," She said, sounding bored, then smirked, "but joke's on them, I'm going to learn as much as I can, unlike the pouting child they think I am."

Dipper really didn't know what to say to that, "I'll... go talk to Stan about it." He stood and scuttled to the office to find Stan in the doorway as if he could actually smell the snootiness and, more importantly, the money in the air.

"Uhm, Grunkle Stan, uhh, Pacific-"

"I need a job or my parents will kill me," Pacifica interrupted, crossing her arms, "I'd like a job... here..." She dithered and chewed the inside of her cheek, "... Please."

Stanford and Dipper looked at each other, then to the tween in front of them.

"What can I say? You're hired!" Stan smiled, reaching out his right hand to have her receive it mere seconds later. "I'll have Wendy show you the ropes when her shift starts..." He stuck out his arm and looked at his watch, "ten minutes ago." He sighed, "Well, I guess that leaves the Little Dipper here." Smiling, Stan pat 'the little Dipper' on the shoulder and stepped back into the office greedily rubbing his hands at the thought of the profits that an employed Northwest would develop.

The two employees left in the gift shop watched as his back disappeared behind the door and after a moment of silence Pacifica looked at Dipper and smirked happily, "I have a job."

_Wouldn't you know it, I had missed her and really enjoyed teaching her. She was a fast learner._


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi guys, sorry this took so long! (I don't have clear direction for this story) I just have to thank all you guys again, it's amazing the feedback I've gotten; I was not expecting it. Soo... Thanks!**

Mabel came running down the stairs, holding Gordy (now wrapped in a blanket), to find Dipper directing Pacifica in how best to restock the shelf.

"Hi Pacifica, meet Warty Gordy!" Mabel said walking up to the pair.

Pacifica turned around to look at her, but before she could say a greeting back she saw the squash in her arms. "What is that?" She said as she pointed to the grinning object of Mabel's affections.

"This is Warty Gordy." Mabel announced, "Warty Gordy, this is Pacifica."

"It looks creepy." Pacifica returned, disgustedly.

Mabel's face looked crestfallen for a moment, but as usual she bounced back and smiled again, "He's not creepy, he has a human face and emotions."

"It's a gourd." Pacifica corrected.

"With feelings." Mabel corrected.

"It's a vegetable."

"It has a face."

"It's ugly and creepy."

"His name is Warty Gordy."

"I don't like it."

"Well, he likes you!" Mabel declared as she shoved the gourd into Pacificas arms.

"Gross!" She hollered as she dropped the face to the floor of the Mystery Shack. The Gourd looked up at her from the ground, now looking incredibly sorrowful.

"Creepy." Pacifica shuddered.

The trio stared at the sad looking face on the floor for a moment, stunned by the rearranged warts on the surface. Until Dipper, finding his voice at last, interjected to avoid anymore tussling, "Mabel, you should take Warty upstairs." He picked up 'Warty' and handed it to Mabel who wrapped it back into the blanket that had fallen off in the struggle.

"He does have feelings." Mabel muttered defiantly as she turned toward the stairs.

Dipper looked at Pacifica who still looked stunned and disgusted.

He was about to continue with his directions and try to get her mind off the squash, but she spoke before he could continue, "What was that thing?" she asked, her eyes stuck on the stairs where Mabel had disappeared.

"It was a squash with a human face and emotions." Dipper answered, but immediately regretted it with the look Pacifica gave him.

"I-I mean it's whatever Mabel wants it to be." He faltered, "That-that is to say that it's just best to play along with her when she gets like this." He breathed a sigh of relief when Pacifica looked away and seemed to agree.

"She is so weird, like, whatever." Pacifica said sounding grossed out.

"Hey!" Dipper hollered in defiance, "That's my sister! Sure, she's weird sometimes, but that's no reason to talk about her like that. Being weird is what makes Mabel… Mabel."

Pacifica mumbled a thoughtful 'whatever' while trying to seem uninterested in the brothers' outburst before adding, "I should probably get home, my parents want me to get a job, but it's not like they want to give me any extra time for it."

Dipper thought for a moment, trying to cool off the steam he worked up and managed to say, "I can give you a ride in the golf cart."

"No that's fine; I'll call my butler, Morton." She answered as she pulled out her phone.

"I'll see you out." He said, trying to be kind.

They said nothing as they sat and waited for the limo, they said nothing when it arrived, and they say nothing as a goodbye as she got in the door opened for her by Morton, though Dipper waved from the porch.

When the limo was out of sight Dipper walked up to the attic to find Mabel telling jokes to Warty Gordy who was now smiling again.

_It was amazing how this butternut squash could change its face; I had to agree with Pacifica, it was creepy. I sat on my bed to read as I reflected on my past interactions with Pacifica. First, she was a bully, then eventually became a friend of sorts. Then she went back to her usual bullying self. I needed to be careful, I knew she was trying, however little she was, but old habits die hard._


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm sorry this took so long; I had to take some serious time to think about where this story was headed. Thanks "Guest" for your advice, however difficult it is for me to take criticism. I look forward to sharing the rest of my story with you and I hope you enjoy!**

_It wasn't easy being Pacifica's friend, she would say something hurtful or rude or lie about something without even meaning to do it, it took a lot of patience. She was trying to be better and I noticed a lot of progress in the few weeks that she had worked at the Mystery Shack. I enjoyed being her friend, she could be funny and sweet a lot of the time, but it wasn't easy._

Dipper sat on the floor arranging little wild animal bobble heads on a lower shelf of the gift shop while Pacifica sat at the counter as they played 20 questions.

"Does it have horns?" Dipper inquired.

"Sometimes." Pacifica answered.

"Okay," Dipper thought, "Does it have partial wings?"

"Um, I guess sometimes."

"You need to stop saying sometimes."

"Well, it's true."

"But it's confusing. What question are we on?"

"Well, now we're on question seventeen."

"Wait, you didn't count the one when I asked what question we're on, did you?"

"Yes, you have two left." She smiled at him as he directed a mock annoyed face at her.

"Okay, I have to be careful," He mumbled to himself as he put another bobble head on the shelf, "Is it frightening?"

"Yes."

"Is it a carnivore?"

"Sometimes."

He gave her another annoyed face and sighed thoughtfully. "I got it, It's a gremloblin."

"You have to at least try." Pacifica said, annoyed.

"I did!" Dipper said defensively.

"That -whatever you said- isn't even real."

"It is real!"

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Fine then," Dipper resigned, "what animal was it?"

"A dinosaur." Pacifica smiled.

"But, dinosaurs don't have horns even some of the time."

"Yeah, they do, have you ever heard of a dragon?"

"Dragons are not dinosaurs, and dragons don't exist."

"Those -whatever you said- things don't exist."

"They do exist and they're called gremloblins." Dipper corrected.

"Prove it." She challenged.

"Umm…" Was the only response Dipper gave.

"That's what I thought." She said victoriously, "Your turn."

"I think I'm done playing this game, let's play something else." Dipper said putting the last bobble head on the shelf. He stood up with the empty box. as Pacifica jeered, "Aww, is wittle Dipper tired of losing all the time?"

"No, I'm just kinda tired of your snarky attitude every time you win." He said not withholding all the bitterness from his voice.

"I'm going to throw away this box." Dipper sighed, stepping toward the door. Pacifica simply nodded her acknowledgment and looked away.

Dipper sighed again when he was out of the Mystery Shack.

_I can't let her know about the journal, she's too unpredictable. She could steal it, or tell people about it, or do something my male mind can't conceive._

As he walked back to the shack from the dumpster a limo pulled in, driven by Morton.

Dipper took notice and got the attention of the driver when the vehicle stopped at the front of the building, "Pacifica's shift doesn't end for another hour." He informed through the car window.

Before Morton could answer, a figure spoke, stepping out from the back door, "I'm afraid she won't be finishing her 'shift', boy."

"Um, hello Mister Northwest?" Dipper stared.

Preston Northwest walked angrily up the porch steps, "I have come to retrieve my unruly daughter, it seems she been sneaking to this hovel for quite some time and it is time to end it."

All Dipper could do was follow.

"Pacifica Elise Northwest!" He bellowed, bursting through the door.

Pacifica swung her legs from the counter top which slammed on the gift shop floor. The shocked girl jumped to her feet, staring.

"This is the end of your hijinks, young lady! I should have known you would be here with the likes of him." He dismissively gestured to the twelve year old in the doorway behind him, "You are an utter embarrassment to the Northwest family! Now come immediately, you are going home to receive severe punishment."

Pacifica's head hung to the ground as she began to, regretfully, walk to the door.

Dipper, still staring, stepped onto the porch to allow her passage through, "You lied about needing to come here?"

Pacifica raised her head as she passed him to give him a sad look.

When she was out of earshot Preston Northwest stood beside Dipper and glowered down menacingly at the boy.

"I order you to cut all ties from my daughter. She was a good and obedient girl before she became affiliated with you and your kind." Preston walked down the steps to his limousine.

Finally Dipper, unknowingly, found his voice, "You can't dictate what your daughter does." The northwest head stopped in his tracks and looked at the boy who met his eyes in defiance as he spoke, "She wants to make her own choices, she wants a job, isn't that something that should be nurtured and grown instead of-of crushed and abused and-and used as just another thing to control her with?" Dipper took a deep, riled breath, "Have you ever had a conversation with Pacifica for the mere purpose of understanding and getting to know your own daughter? She wants to learn, she wants to make things, she wants to grow! Not put in a little box that you created for her!"

Dipper stood, panting from excursion and frustration, boring into Preston with his daring eyes.

"You watch yourself, boy. Don't forget who you're talking to, I own this town, I own your uncle and I own everyone you know." Preston's face came mere inches from Dipper's face, "Pull a lecture on Preston Northwest like that again and I will destroy you and everything you love."

Preston turned away and got in the limo not before sending another death glare at Dipper.

Dipper watched as the vehicle drove up the path into the forest towards Northwest mansion.

Dipper took a large breath and trudged back into the gift shop.

"Where's Pacifica going an hour before her shift ends?" Stan demanded from the door of the office.

Dipper sighed again, "She quit." Dipper sat on the stool behind the counter.

Stan sensing that something wrong asked, "Something wrong there, uh, sport?"

Dipper laid his head on the counter, facing away from Stan he said. "Pacifica lied about needing a job, her parents didn't even know about it." Dipper sighed," I thought she was getting better, I thought she was going to stop lying and being mean and stuff."

Stan stood beside his nephew and spoke, "I, uh, I understand what that's like, it's hard to work on a relationship like that with no recognition of your efforts from the other person."

Dipper turned his head and looked at Stan, resting the other side of his face on the counter, "How do you understand how I feel?"

"Well," he began slowly, "I had this friend once who loved to steal candy, nothing major, just a chocolate bar here or there. I told him again and again to stop, that he would get in trouble, but he just kept doing it. It's not like he was poor or anything either… He just he did it for the thrill…" Stan looked at the ground.

Moments passed as Stan considered his memories of this old friend. Just when it seemed that he was done imparting his story he spoke again, "He did get in trouble," The old man chuckled to himself, "he was an idiot. He was in the county jail for two days... He was only ten. Eventually the couple who he robbed from forgave him and let him go free. They were a nice couple." Stan paused again thoughtfully, "He did some time… later in life. It tore apart his family."

Dipper studied his grunkles face, this friend meant a lot to him.

"I still don't know if he's learned his lesson." Stan looked sadly at his shop, he studied all the cheap novelty toys and clothes and decorative figurines. He sighed, much like his grand nephew did.

"I'll let Mabel know her shift starts early today." Stan added as he walked towards the stairs.


	5. Chapter 5

**I love the responses I've gotten form y'alls! I hate to beg, but reviews are the reason I'm writing this, I love hearing your thoughts on what I put out there for people to judge, whether good or bad. I'm sorry for how long this took and I best not promise anything, but I do have something coming up.**

_He gave the silence treatment all the way home Dad dragged me to his office where Mom was waiting for us. They don't yell, that's the worst part, they just talk, like, really angrily. They did that for, like, thirty minutes. Like, half the time they were saying how embarrassing I was to the Northwest family. Finally they took my phone and sent me to my room. I got to my room to find everything removed, all my clothes, all my makeup, my books, my laptop and my comfy chairs. It was way too big to have all that stuff missing. I had nothing to do, but for the first time in weeks I cried. I cried more than I thought possible. I had lied to my only true friends in the world. Dipper had looked so disappointed. He was too honest and kind to have anything to do with someone like me. I had ruined everything. I probably looked disgusting with all my makeup running down my face, but I let it, why shouldn't I let my face match my personality for once?_

The house was singing with the wind swept rain pattering the roof. Dipper sat on his bed trying to get his mind off of the events of the day by reading a book from his summer reading list. It wasn't working.  
Mabel sat on the floor beside her bed putting a slightly frightened looking Warty Gordy in his 'bed' which was just a nest of blankets.

"Goodbye and goodnight, go to sleep little Warty, the storm will not bite, it won't last til we're forty..." Mabel sang.

When she was done tucking him in she sat on her bed and looked at the content look on Warty Gordy's face, then she looked at her brother who appeared much less content. He was staring unhappily at the first page of the chapter that he had started ten minutes ago.

"What's wrong Bro-Bro?" She asked.

He was pulled out of his trance and tore his eye from the page to look at Mabel, trying to register what she said, "Nothing" He looked back at his book.

"Oh, come on Dipper, I know something's bugging you. Can't you tell your own sister?" She walked across the room and sat on the open space of the bed beside him. "C'mon, Dipper, what's wrong?"

"Fine," her brother resigned, laying down and putting the book against his chest. "It's just that Pacifica lied to me. If she wanted to work here she could have just said that, but she didn't and now I'll probably never see her again. If she wanted to be friends and hang out than she could have just said so, but instead she lied."

Mabel smiled kindly at her brother the way their mother does, "Dipper, it's the only way she knows; she's lied her whole life. She only started getting better when she worked here and spent enough time with you. You're a good influence on her, and I'm sure we'll see her again. You just have to be patient." Mabel laid her arm across his collar bone in a hug of sorts.

Dipper sighed knowing she was right.

"Hey you know what we should do before going to sleep tonight?" Mabel asked bobbing her eyebrows up and down, "We should play 'Who's The best?'!"

Dipper sat up as a smile spread across his face, "Okay, and how do we play that?"

Mabel jumped off the bed and started pacing, "We just go back forth saying who's the best ranking them based on how cool they are, obviously I would be on the top so we can get that out of the way."

"Shut up." Dipper chuckled as he hurled his pillow at his sister.

She caught it and giggled as she fell on her bed, "I'm keeping this, you know." Suddenly she stopped her nonsensical laughter and sat up hugging the pillow to her chest, "Did you hear that?" She looked at the door with a spooked look on her face.

Dipper heard nothing, but glanced at the door, a moment later he heard it. It was sort of a pecking sound coming from downstairs.

"I'll... go check it out." Dipper mumbled as he pulled the covers off.

He followed the pecking sound til it led him to the outside door of the gift shop. He gulped, grabbing a baseball bat as he reached to open the door. He peered out of the crack he made of the door and saw a figure he couldn't recognize in the darkness.

"Hello? Who's there?" He gulped out.

"Dipper? Is that you? Can I come in?"

"Pacifica?" He opened the door to see a shivering wet and disheveled girl. She was muddy from some obvious falls in the rain, almost unrecognizable being bare of any makeup. Pacifica's almost panicked voice came from the mismatched frame, "Dipper, please let me in."

Dipper quickly opened the door, gesturing her inside. She scurried in and immediately shook out her wet hair and clothes.

"follow me." Dipper whispered before ascending the stairs, and she complied.

When he opened the door Mabel looked like she was about to ask what it was but then saw Pacifica behind him and smiled, "Pacifica!" Mabel's smile dissolved when she saw the state her friend was in, "Pacifica?"

"Hi Mabel... I'm sorry to bother you guys, but... I needed to get out of that house." Pacificia shivered.

Mabel gave her a sympathetic smile and reached out to take her hand, "Let's get you out of those clothes." Mabel gave Dipper the look, "Dipper."

"Oh, right. I'll get out of your hair." Dipper muttered as he scurried out of the room and sat on the top step of the stairs. Mabel yelled through the door when he was allowed in. Dipper returned to find Pacifica in one of Mabel's night gowns wrapped up in a blanket, sitting in next to his sister on her bed.

"Hi there, Pacifica, by the way." Dipper rambled, "It-It's nice to see you again."

"Thanks Dipper, it's nice to see you too." Pacifica mumbled, pulling the blanket tight around her.


	6. Chapter 6

**So, I'm kinda disappointed with this one. Again, reviews are always appreciated, good or bad.**

_Man, I hate Preston... He's so freaking dead. __She came and for that I was happy, but seemed really distressed and I probably shouldn't have been as happy as I was. She was all disheveled from her trip here. I still can't believe she walked all the way to the Shack from the Northwest Mansion._

Dipper sat on the floor between the twin beds and leaned against his bed, trying to keep his eyes off of Pacifica. She looked at the ceiling, the floor, the bed, the wall, the lamp- really anywhere but Dipper or Mabel.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" Mabel asked, outright.

"I just... No." The blonde said into the comforter wrapped around her.

"Well, I'm glad you're here." Mabel stated happily as her feet began to kick against the side of her bed.

Dipper smiled at his sister. She sure knew how to make the tension leave a room just by being happy. Well, just by being Mabel, in truth. His smiled deepened inwards.

Pacifica sighed tiredly as she finally met Dipper's eyes. "I just... wanted to see you guys. You two are the only people I feel comfortable with anymore. That I feel like I can be myself around." She dropped her gaze and set herself to studying the floor again, chewing on her lip. "You two are my only friends."

"I-" Dipper reached as far as he could into himself, looking for the words he needed. "We wanted to see you too." he blurted instead, "We like hanging with you, and we like when you're yourself. I like playing dumb games with you, and I like getting surprised by your intelligence. You're my- our friend as much as we're yours."

She looked at him, shocked, finally she spoke and Dipper could release the breath he was holding, "I'm not the friend I should be."

"I'm proud to call you my friend." He replied with hardly a thought towards it.

She stared at Dipper.

"I'm proud to call you my friend too." Mabel followed.

She stared at Mabel, then Dipper again, then at the floor.

"I'm sorry." Her voice cracked and she covered her face in the comforter. Dipper watched the blanket shake as Mabel lovingly wrapped her arms around it. Dipper unthinkingly stood and sat on the other side as his sister and hugged the bundle as well.

They sat for long moments hearing her sobs, feeling her body shake, Dipper trying to understand.

After her sobs began to subside she raised her head and looked at him ashamed she had been so vulnerable. Dipper saw her eyes peek out at him and he couldn't help but smile kindly at her. "I'll be right back." He said.

When he stepped back into the room Mabel had taken his spot on the floor and Pacifica had taken the spot across from her.

"Here, Pacifica." He said sitting beside her and handing her a length of toilet paper, "Sorry we don't have any real tissues, Stan says it's an unnecessary expense."

"Thanks, Dipper." She said, fiddling with the cheap paper in her hands.

"About the night of the Northwest party." She began after a long moment, looking at wall behind Mabel, "I was really terrified, more scared than I ever thought possible. And I only felt so scared because I saw you dead, or what I thought was dead." She turned her head, looking at Dipper. "I wanted to run away, but you stood up to the ghost for your sister and you were frozen because of it. I- I thought you were dead."

Pacifica took the paper to her eyes as she began to shake again. She felt the reassuring touch of Mabel's warm hand on her shin and Dipper's arm touch her own.

"You were dead." She murmured into her hands.

"We're alive now and we're here." Mabel reached out and took Pacifica's hand in her own.

"Mabel, you were frozen longer than me, what was it like?" Dipper asked curiously.

She put her folded hands under her chin, supporting it thoughtfully. "It wasn't really 'like' anything. I was just talking one second and then the next I just knew that I had been frozen. I just kinda knew all that had happened." She folded her hands on her lap and leaned back against the bed again, "It was weird."

"I was really scared for you, both of you." Dipper nodded.

"How do you think I felt?" Pacifica chuckled, "My only friends were... dead." She laughed again, trying to release some nervous energy and emotion. Yet she still felt tears falling down her cheeks. _I'm so stupid,_ She thought as she wiped her eyes with the wad of toilet paper, _Why am I crying so much?_

She covered her eyes with her hands, trying to think of something say or do to take the attention from her. Her friends let her cry in respectful silence as they considered they're own experiences.

"Hey, Pacifica, someone wants say 'Hi'." Pacifica heard Mabel say at last.

The blonde looked up through teary lashes as she wiped her cheeks with her wrist rather than the over used toilet paper. She saw Mabel with the squash in her lap, facing her. The gourd seemed to be more calming than before and didn't fill her with the same kind of discomfort as before and she couldn't help but smile, at least a little.

"Hi, Warty Gordy." She chuckled at the smiling features.

Mabel passed the gourd into Pacifica's hands, this time more hesitantly, more like a question. Pacifica took the face in her arms and smiled down at the gourd and at her friend's efforts. She rested Gordy in her arms as she would a baby and enjoyed the silent company of her friends for a few moments before a strange thought occurred to her. "What are your parents like?" She asked, her friends looked at her, "They can't be so bad if they're your parents, but they did send you guys to a dump like this too." She wondered aloud.

The twins made eye contact for a moment having a short conversation in their gaze, then dropped their eyes.

"We were an accident." Mabel started, looking at the floor, "They didn't really want kids, but they kept us anyway."

"They're in love and they've been in love since they first laid eyes on each other." Dipper added, "We can be a handful, more trouble than usually comes from a single pregnancy, certainly. And we know that, so, we try not to bother them too much."

"We understand that they sacrificed a lot of what they loved for us." Mabel added.

"That's not to say that they don't love us." Dipper inserted, looking at Pacifica.

"We were both happy to come here when Mom and Dad brought up the idea to come here." Mabel continued, "We still keep in touch, they send letters occasionally and having a conference call, just the four of us, isn't uncommon either."

"But," Dipper interjected "it's still hard being away from them."

The twins looked at each other understandingly across the way. Pacifica wondered at that,_ Their parents seem nice enough, but they seem really saddened by it._

"They seem nice." She smiled, to the quiet twins.

They smiled back at her.

"Gordy's not so bad is he?" Mabel asked looking at the gourd, "I'd say you two are getting along-." She stopped, seeing the expression on her gourd.

The other two looked also, wondering at her sudden silence.

Warty Gordy's pimpled face was contorted into a look of horror and fear.

"What's wrong Gordy?" Pacifica asked, turning the butternut to look him full in the face.

"He's scared." Mabel panicked, as she grabbed him from her friend's hands, "What did you see?"

Dipper stood up and walked to the triangle window where the gourd had been facing, investigating, "Something was out there." The rain had subsided leaving a few drops on the panes, but the air clear to look through.

Pacifica was suddenly gripped with such dread that she clutched the blanket around her defensively, like a turtle hiding in his shell. She could feel the same dread wrapping itself around her friends and she wanted to cry again. _No,_ She determined, _that's stupid. _But the feeling remained all the same.

Dipper turned away from the window and looked at Pacifica resolutely. "We should get you home." He walked across the room and grabbed his shoes and a jacket from beside the door, "Mabel, help her get ready, I'm going to pull the golf cart up." He ordered as he opened the door and walked out.

_It was a short, quiet ride back to the Northwest mansion. I admit I didn't like taking her back to that place, but something was out in the woods and she'd probably be safer in that house with servants about. She was pretty quiet on the ride back. When we reached the mansion she told me where to drop her off so she could sneak back in. I parked and she began to climb out of the golf cart, "Wait," I said. She stopped "I'm glad you came, I just want you safe." She didn't say anything. She just gave me this really sad look. I watched her sneak through a hole in the wall surrounding the estate before leaving for home._


End file.
